Amendments to the FY15 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)

Heritage Action will be key voting the following two amendments to H.R. 4435, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA):

Key Vote Alert: “YES” on Lamborn Amendment #61

The House will vote on Lamborn Amendment #61 to the National Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 4435). Introduced by Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-CO)89%, the amendment would limit the use of funds for implementing the New START treaty until certification that the Russian Federation is respecting Ukrainian sovereignty and is no longer violating the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) or the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE).

New START overwhelmingly favors Moscow while it mandates the U.S. bears a majority of the reductions. Additionally, Moscow is in violation of its arms control obligations, including under the INF Treaty. These systems threaten U.S. allies in Europe, in addition to NATO’s massive disparity in short-range nuclear weapons. The U.S. should not continue to make unilateral strategic nuclear weapons reductions at the time when Russia is modernizing, improving, and increasing its nuclear arsenal and threatening U.S. interests in Europe.

Heritage Action supports Lamborn Amendment #61 and will include it as a key vote on our scorecard.

Key Vote Alert: “YES” on Daines-Cramer-Lamborn-Lummis Amendment #76

The House will vote on Daines-Cramer-Lamborn-Lummis Amendment #76 to the National Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 4435). Introduced by Rep. Steve Daines (R-MT)77%, Rep. Kevin Cramer (R-ND)53%, Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-CO)89%, and Rep. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY)77%, the amendment strikes subsection (c) of Section 1634 of the reported NDAA, which terminates in 2021 the requirement that ICBM silos remain in at least warm status.

This amendment would require that the U.S. keeps intercontinental-range ballistic missiles (ICBMs) in warm status past 2021. The U.S. is currently the only nuclear weapons state without a substantive nuclear weapons modernization program. All other nuclear powers are increasing the size of their arsenals. Maintaining ICBM silos warm would allow the U.S. to maintain flexibility to respond to unexpected strategic developments in a shorter time frame than if the U.S. had to rebuild the silos.

Heritage Action supports Daines-Cramer-Lamborn-Lummis Amendment #76 and will include it as a key vote on our scorecard.